Gay and bisexual men are angry with Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services for only accepting their donated blood if they have been celibate for five or more years.
While this overturning of the previous lifetime ban, which remains in effect in the United States, is portrayed as a positive forward step, many gay rights activists see the new policy as the continuation of a discriminatory policy.
"There's no scientific reason why there's still a five-year ban where gay men and bisexual men have to abstain," Pride Prince George president Valentine Crawford said. "It's ludicrous, regardless of the fact that it is a step in the right direction."
Canadian Blood Services doesn't just discriminate against gay men for donating blood. It singles out other groups as well, for sexual reasons. For example, anyone who has had sex with someone from the African countries of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger or Nigeria, regardless of their ethnicity and regardless of whether it was homosexual or heterosexual intercourse, can't donate blood because of a possible exposure to a newer strain of HIV that causes AIDS. Anyone who has received a blood transfusion while in those countries is also ineligible.
Anyone whose been paid for sex, even once, can't give blood.
Anyone whose ever injected drugs into their body, even just once, can't give blood.
There are other non-sexual reasons people can't give blood, based on disease or exposure to serious illnesses. Anyone who lived in the U.K. or France for more than three months between 1980 and 1996 isn't allowed to donate blood (full disclosure: I fall in that category) because of possible exposure to what's known as mad-cow disease.
Whether the reasons are sexual or non-sexual, Canadian Blood Services discriminates against potential blood donors because safety trumps politics. After the horrible tainted blood scandal, which saw people receive blood transfusions with blood contaminated with HIV or Hepatitis C, Canadian Blood Services was born out of a Royal Commission inquiry into Canada's blood system.
That might explain Canada's cautious approach to allowing gay or bisexual men to donate blood. In England and Australia, the abstinence period is one year. In South Africa, it's six months. In Italy, people are asked to abstain from giving blood for at least four months after changing sexual partners, regardless of their gender or sexuality.
There lies the rub.
People are asked not to donate blood if they are in violation of any of the safety precautions but they have to admit to it when asked. As the Canadian Press reported this week, a British study found that 11 per cent of men who have had sexual encounters with other men have given blood, lying to the personnel who run through a checklist before accepting a blood donation. Some did it because they were certain their blood didn't pose a risk to the population, while others did it to protest the policy.
That behaviour is appalling, putting personal satisfaction and political statements ahead of the safety of the population. No one receives blood for fun. Anyone who has received a blood transfusion knows they likely wouldn't be alive today without the generosity of others.
Gay rights advocates like Crawford may be frustrated with Canada's slow movement on this issue but Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services are right to be overly cautious about accepting blood. Although that caution appears to single out gay and bisexual men, that discrimination is based on the increased risk for disease, not on sexual preference.
The blood donation policy in Canada is being constantly updated and screening techniques are becoming more and more sophisticated. In the near future, the five-year abstinence policy will fall to a year or less. Gay men in long-term, monogamous relationships will also be allowed to donate blood in Canada, as they already can in Italy.
Giving blood is a planned and conscious act of good will. Receiving blood is never planned or wanted, but always desperately needed. Making sure that blood is safe and untainted warrants a certain level of discrimination.
